VILLAFÁFILA CITY COUNCIL "THE BUILDING"

The residents of Villafáfila used to get together in the ordinary councils to deal with the important things of the town since the Middle Ages called by the bell, and there are numerous testimonies, in the extraordinary councils, for example, in 1468 they receive the person sent by the new master of the Order of Santiago:

“counciled in their council to the bell tolled in the Plaza de Sant Martín in the said town” [1] ,

since then, lacking a council house, they met in the portals of the churches or in the squares.

Every year for San Juan in June the new mayors and aldermen were elected:

“for their lots that they folded in a hat and having them shaken and called the people and neighbors of said town by the sound of the bell tolling so that the said lots could be made in front of them in the public audience” [2] .

When the mayors had to hold hearings in lawsuits and lawsuits between neighbors:

"The ordinary mayors have been in the habit of holding hearings on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in what concerns to accuse before them rebellions of summoned and at the time of said hearing the bell was rung for the said deadlines so that the summoned appeared", as witnesses remember in 1576 [3] .

1st CITY HALL BUILDING

In the first Town Hall house that was built in the 16th century, at least it was already built in 1527, where the Mayors who put the order of Santiago for the administration in Villafáfila can already see that its construction is urged.

The council met to the sound of a tolling bell, in the square or in a church or in the inn of the mayor, in the absence of council houses, just as the mayors settled down to exercise justice "fight lawsuits" in a corner of the square or under the portals of some private houses, so the Catholic Monarchs ordered the construction of some houses for the meetings of the council:

“Your Highness will know how the visitors sent the said council of this town of Villafáfila to build a town hall to be held in it and the said town is in great need and has a lot to do to repair the fence and gates of the said town that It is ordered and they begged their Highnesses to order that the said house not be built and for this reason they did not send from here to the next All Saints' Day that comes from this present year of a thousand and incur the penalty that the visitors put on them, in the saying chapter. Having seen the chapter of the said visitation, they probed into it and ordered the said council to have and comply with what the said inspectors had for five hundred and two years” [4] .

But it seems that this mandate was not carried out as can be seen years later.

Throughout the year 1519, the lawyer Juan Ruiz, after the end of the residence trial, remains as:

“ Mayor Mayor of the towns and places that the order of Santiago has in Old Castile and the kingdoms of León and Galicia here in the ports by the king Mr.” .

In July of that year:

“in the presence of my Miguel de Carrascosa, clerk of the hearing of the said mayor, I present a letter and royal prohibition of his highness, issued and signed by the gentlemen of his council of orders and endorsed by Sancho de Paz, secretary, and sealed on her back with the royal seal, the tenor of which is as follows:

Don Carlos, by the grace of God, King of Castile and Leon, etc., to you, my mayor, health and grace, know that before my council of the said order, a petition was heard that was presented to me by the Can you tell me that the mayors of said party reside most of the year in the town of Villafáfila, which is the closest of the counties to the other places in the party...”

The request made by council officers:

“ In Villafáfila twenty-eighth day of June from the birth of our savior of one thousand and five hundred and ten and nine years, being in the inn where the Lord Mayor poses, which is in the house of Juan de Castro, together and town hall Due to their mandate to the second tolling canpana, they have the use of assembling when the said Lord Mayor is present and Bartolome Manso and Aº de Muélledes, regular mayors in the said town, and Aº Bara and Pº Mtz, aldermen and Juan de Santa Cruz, attorney and Martin de Barrio and Pº Glez and Juan Sánches and Juan Rguez and PºMontaño and Juan Glez and Fdo Manso and Pº de Muélledes, deputies and jurors of the council, all of them being thus talking about the things of the city council and council” ,

It was for the Council of Orders to give a license and mandate so that the council of Villafáfila could buy some houses in the square, to be able to build the houses of the consistory, the audience of the mayor and the jail of the town. The need for this had been manifesting for many years before:

 “ ...I saw that the mayors of the past talked many times about how the town halls were created... ”,

They even applied some penalties for the construction of the council house, such as the year 1516 the Bachiller Mexia. The urgency was felt, above all, by the mayors to hold their audiences and to use it as accommodation during their stays in the town,

" Because there are not two houses in the said vylla where the Mayor can pose because the houses are narrow, poor and low "

As he later served other mayors who succeeded him.

This lawyer Ruiz, intended that, in the meantime, the council give him accommodation for free:

“ You will be able to see quynze years a little more or less than a licensed Ruiz, mayor of the said encomienda, tried to break the said custom by wanting to take the inn by force, after the said residençia, wanting to be given an inn for free in a brother's house of this witness who was called Juan de Castro, and he went to complain to the court in the council of the hordes and from there he brought a royal provision so that Liçençiado Ruiz would leave his house and pay him what he had stated in it against his will ” [5] .

And he must have urged the aldermen to carry out the works of said house as soon as possible. In his defense, its owner, Francisco Arias, a new Christian, makes a request in which he says that this house is necessary for him to exercise his trade as a merchant, and that it is not so necessary for the council. . For this reason, the mayor wanted to put him in jail and he had to leave the town at night to be able to appeal to the court:

“I try to ensure that said prohibition is given and importunate the councilors so that they ask for it for the benefit that they expect from it” .

The Ldo. Ruiz argues to defend the construction of the council house that:

“Becoming the said house of ayantamyento second, he has said to try to tire the residents of the said town with the inns that they give to the mayors and their officials because as the houses are poor and there are no rooms in them because of the few people they brought they occupy many inns and the council always has arguments with the locals about it” [6] .

The town council paid the posadas for the new mayor during the first thirty days, from the time he arrived with the provision of his appointment to the town, which was the duration of the residency trial that he made to his predecessor, and afterwards, the mayor mayor took posada on his own:

“the mayor posed in the inn indicated by the regiment and during the said tyenpo of the thirty days he did not pay anything for it but the council gave it to him at the expense of their own; ... after the resydençia was over, I saw the mayors pose a few times in the houses that the Count of Benavente had in that town and other times in the house that belonged to a Pedro Gonçalez, deceased, father who was Alonso Gonçalez and the said mayors paid what they agreed upon” ,

well in the house owned by the Count of Benavente, who at the same time was the commander, in the square, as in the year 1518:

“because he saw him in his abdiençia in the houses of the Count where he stayed ”,

or in the house of a particular neighbor in 1519:

“in the inn where the said Lord Mayor Mayor poses, which is in the house of Juan de Castro ”

Some mayors wanted the council to bear the cost of accommodation beyond the residency period, which gave rise to disputes with the council:

“ You will be able to see quynze years a little more or less than a licensed Ruiz, mayor of the said encomienda, tried to break the said custom by wanting to take the inn by force, after the said residençia, wanting to be given an inn for free in a brother's house of this witness who was called Juan de Castro, and he went to complain to the court in the council of the hordes and from there he brought a royal provision so that Liçençiado Ruiz would leave his house and pay him what he had stated in it against his will ” [7] .

And, after they are built, in the new council houses in a room designed for it. In 1527:

"... the mayor mayor has perched in the council house and he has not done what he has to give for it ."

And in the same houses he had his audience:

“ That I saw the said Bachiller Frrº Arias in this town of Villafáfila has already abdiençia in the council houses where the ordinary mayors do it ” [8] .

No bell was placed in the Town Hall, so the clock bell placed in the tower of the church of San Martín, which was owned by the town hall, continued to be used by the council, since all the neighbors, both pecheros and hidalgos, had participated in its cost as recalled by one of these, Gutierre de Ballesteros, referring to the end of the fifteenth century:

 “ and they have paid for things in which they have paid the omes fixed and this witness as fixed that they were to phase a bridge and a canpana” [9] .

  In 1677 the city council bought a new clock in Valladolid, to replace the old one placed in the tower of San Martín, the roof of the tower was repaired and the window that overlooked the square was closed. A public deed was made before the notary Vitacarros of agreement between the council and the church on the entrance to compose the clock [10] .

The town hall had a person in charge of maintaining the clock and ringing the bells, as per the regiment's agreement on July 3, 1677:

" He is appointed to ring the bells in good weather, day and night, as Pedro Vidal is accustomed to, from this day until the end of September, he is given 14 quarters of wheat as a salary for that time " (just over one hundred Kg.) .

And in the preserved accounts of the following years there is an item to pay the watchmaker-bell maker, both in wheat and a small monetary supplement between 10 and 27 reais because it was a part-time job.

As of 1715, the doorman of the town hall acts as both watchmaker and bell ringer and a higher salary is set, since in 1738 he was paid 200 reais and in 1743 12 fanegas of wheat 8520 kg. and 30 reais.

Towards the end of 1795 the town hall was in a state of ruin and was demolished to make a new one.

Since the construction of the town hall at the beginning of the s. XVI, already in 1527, and between its demolition at the end of the 18th century, its building spent approximately 250 years.

 Villafáfila at that time belonged to the Order of Santiago, which the Grand Master in turn was the king at the beginning Carlos I Austria (Habsburg), the figure he administered was a Mayor, their relationship in Villafáfila:

In 1541 it ceased to belong to the Order of Santiago and on December 3, Carlos I notified the town of its incorporation into the Crown.

On March 31, 1542, Don Bernardino Pimentel Almansa y Quiñones (5th son of the 3rd Count of Benavente D. Alonso Pimentel), I Marquess of Távara, took possession of the manor of Villafáfila and its annexes of San Agustín del Pozo and Revellinos by virtue of the purchase that, for an amount of 13,634,186 maravedís, he had made to King D. Carlos I of Austria, as Master of the Military Order of Santiago and from his Master. Villafáfila and its annexes, henceforth would be "lordship" of the Marquesado de Távara and its neighboring vassals of the same.

Reigns passed by the City Council Carlos I 1556, Felipe II 1556-1598, Felipe, III 1598-1621, Felipe IV 1621-1665 Carlos II 1665-1700, Felipe V de Borbón 1700 and 01-15-1724, Luis I 1724- 1724, Felipe V de Borbón 1724-1746, Fernando VI 1746-1759, Carlos III 1759-1788, Carlos IV 1788-1808.

Marquesses of Távara who were during that time the lords of Villafáfila:

The roll

Where the Scroll was, it is a column usually made of stone and normally topped by a cross or a ball. It represented the administrative category of the place, rising only in the villazgos that had full jurisdiction, indicating the regime to which it was subject: royal, council, ecclesiastical or monastic lordship. In addition, it marked the territorial limit and, in certain cases, it was a commemorative monument of the granting of villazgo. They shared with the pillories the functions of executions. These executions were suspended by decree of the Cortes of Cádiz in 1812.

There are in those towns of the kingdoms of the Crown of Castile that had a mayor and, therefore, jurisdiction to judge and sentence to death. It also served to punish and pay the minor sentences of common criminals, who, after being flogged, were exposed to public shame.

Scrolls are similar to cruise ships, but their meaning is different.

Possibly it was in front of the Town Hall.

2nd CITY HALL BUILDING

At the end of the 18th century, a new town hall was built on the same site as the previous one.

Towards the end of 1795 the town hall was in a state of ruin and was demolished to make a new one.

The disappearance of the community in the hospital of San Juan (Located next to the church of San Juan) must have occurred after 1781, in which the last deceased poor person is recorded, the assets of the hospital began to be administered by the City Council, which in 1796 he sold the lots to the Royal Treasury for the erection of the Royal Saltpeter Factory:

“The confraternity of hospital brothers, although in effect it was put on the ground, years after it was extinguished, since which time it seems that the City Council, by virtue of the patronage that it always kept over the hospital, has run with the administration of its effects and proceeded to the sale of the plot for the establishment of the saltpeter factories, because the house was in ruins, there were no funds to rebuild it, nor the means for the hospitality to subsist” .

The Purchase Order was issued on October 5, 1795 for 9,650 reais. But when doing the deeds, the town did not present the property titles that were requested and the Salinas de Zamora Income Administrator did not want to give them the real ones, very necessary at that time to use them in the works of the City Hall building, that was in ruin, and they needed to make a new one. Finally, the Knight-Intendant of the province ordered that the amount of the purchase be handed over to the City Council, but leaving deposited in the Depositary of Bridges 2,356 R. that the town owed for contributions that it had not made.

Francisco Caunedo, faithful to the Royal Saltpeter Factory of Villafáfila between 1795-97, and who stole everything he could from the Factory, also sold bricks and tiles for the work of the City Council and to individuals, of which the tilemaker had manufactured more, who bought them at a lower price for the factory [11] .

On February 19, 1798, there is evidence:

“That same night the Mayor ordered the Town Hall clock to be rung, just released, to turn on lights and fire rockets” [12] .

For what the previous data lets us glimpse that the City Hall was in a state of ruin and a new one was built between the years 1796, 1797, in 1798 it did not take time to be built, and it was given a clock.

The order given by the Cortes of Cádiz in 1812, which called for the demolition of the Rollos when the jurisdictional manors were abolished, was perhaps the reason for the disappearance of the Villafáfila river.

Description of the town hall that arrived until 1986:

The City Hall consisted of three parts, the lower and upper floors that its façade was made of stone and the upper part of the City Hall that was made of brick, It was made of rammed earth and adobe.

The lower floor, which is the one at street level, with a large stone support base for the two large arches it had.

Between the arches there was a separation against the doors and wall of the town hall that served as a portal for refuge.

In each arch of the portal there was a door:

The door on the left opened onto a staircase that led to the upper floor.

The right door opened onto a room (it was used as a post office) and another interior (it was used as a prison) on its side that faced the house that was the palace of the Marquis of Távara and Calle Rejadarada.

The upper floor was accessed by the staircase from the lower floor door on the left, upon reaching the end of it, and which gave:

To the right, there was a balcony whose façade was the same as that of the lower one, two large arches that were made of stone, each one had a balustrade and from where the bell was rung.

To the left was the secretariat of the City Council and the plenary hall.

Like the lower part, on its side there were two windows that faced the house that was the palace of the Marquises of Távara and Rejadarada Street.

At the end of the Town Hall there was a small window that looked into the hall. Adjacent there was a small water boiler.

The upper part is finished off with a brick belfry, in which a clock was placed and the bell that the City Council had in the church of San Martín was moved to mark the hours and to make calls. On its sides are some pinnacles ending in balls, and crowned by a weathervane with a cross.

In the photo from 1975 it can be seen that the town hall from its lower middle part upwards had been plastered with cement, and its balcony was closed with two large windows that disfigured the oval shape it had and broke its aesthetics.

This City Hall building that was from the end of the s. XIII until 1986s. XX about 200 years, I start as Lord of Villafáfila Pedro Alcántara Álvarez de Toledo y Salm-Salm (1768-1841), XII Marquis of Távara, being King Carlos IV until 1808, then Fernando VII 1808 , just new he had to feel in the s . XIX, the war of independence imposed as King Joseph Bonaparte 1808-1813.

The manors were abolished between 1811-1814, during the War of Independence, with the arrival of King Ferdinand VII it was restored again.

Being already Queen Elizabeth II in 1836, the manors were definitively abolished. The last lord of Villafáfila was Pedro Alcántara Álvarez de Toledo y Salm-Salm (1768-1841), XII Marquis of Távara.

Isabel II 1833-1868, Revolutionary period 1868-1870 General Francisco Serrano, Head of the Provisional Government, Amadeo I 1870-1873, I Republic 1873-1874, Figueras, Pi y Margall, Salmerón y Castelar, Alfonso XII, Regency of María Cristina 1885-1902, Alfonso XIII 1886-1931, II Republic 1931-1939 President Niceto Alcalá Zamora, Manuel Azaña, Francoist Dictatorship 1939-1975 Francisco Franco Bahamonde. Democracy Parliamentary Monarchy King Juan Carlos I 1975, Presidents of the government D. Adolfo Suárez González 1976-1981 and Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo 1981-1982, Felipe González Márquez 1982 the city council is demolished in 1986 still Felipe González Márquez of President.

List of Mayors of Villafáfila in the Parliamentary Monarchy Democracy that governed the end of the town hall built in the s. XIII.

In 1986, when D. Luis Gallego Cañibano was mayor, the old Town Hall, which was built in the s, was demolished. XVIII without preserving its stone facade and all its original silhouette.

In 1986 a new Town Hall was made, with a certain similarity in its façade to that of the previous Town Hall, but nothing to see in reality or the beauty it had as an old building. and its shape similar to the old one.

The town hall consists of three parts, the lower floor, upper floor and the upper part that its facade is made of ocher colored stone, it is made of brick.

The lower floor, the floor was raised with respect to the street, which is accessed by stairs through the arches similar to the previous one, years, between the arches and the entrance door and the walls form a portal. In this outer part is also the bulletin board.

Access to the Town Hall is through a single door in the middle, behind the portals

The interior of the lower floor, there is a first wider central corridor that divides to the right, it had a small room where the post office was located, the mailbox was just located on the exterior wall, then two small offices that communicated with each other, on the left side at first a room, then it leads to the stairs that lead to the top.

A second narrower corridor than to the right was another room that served as an archive, on the left side were the toilets, and at the end another small room, where the Spain cash office of the Sheep Cooperative was there, or later the cyber.

From the side that overlooked the palace house that belonged to the Marquises of Távara, until its demolition, and Calle Rejadarada, it has three windows for the offices on the left, and an entrance that led to the last room where the different offices.

In the part of the upper floor it is accessed by the stairs that are in the middle of the first corridor, on the left hand side the auditorium at its end had a window and for both local and general votes, etc., in front of a small room that is the justice of the peace and civil archive, and to the right a large room that was the secretariat, from which it gives access to the balcony from which every year the bell is rung for the chimes of New Year's Eve, or to sing the miserere in the procession of the Silence of Holy Wednesday and where the flags of Villafáfila, Castilla y León, Spain and Europe are hung, and to the right of the mayor's office that is accessible from the inside with a secretariat and vice versa through an interior door.

On the side that overlooked the palace house that belonged to the Marquises of Távara, until its demolition, and Rejadarada Street, it has four large windows, a court secretariat and an assembly hall.

Years later, the secretary moves to the bottom left to give better access to the neighbors who are getting older.

The upper floor was made to a reflection of the previous City Hall, but being its ocher-colored stone facade, the old clock with all its machinery, Mr. Mayor made it disappear under strange circumstances and the next corporation put a new one, excluding the pinnacles that gave an air of typicality, on the sides some sheet metal bands were placed so that no bird such as a stork made a nest on top, the only thing that was preserved was the bell that served for its ringing, at the end it is crowned by a weathervane and a cross . 

Just behind the town hall there was still a small plot where there was a water boiler.

In September 2004, as Mayor Susana De Caso Bausela, the Town Hall was enlarged.

Where the adjoining lot is annexed, the boiler is demolished and the lot that remained would be added to the town hall

The part of the lower floor is the ambulatory (before it was in the house of the stop) making it more central for the population for daily visits to the doctor or nursing care, which has an office for each one, plus a small waiting room and services for people with difficulties.

The upper part was dedicated to enlarge the small assembly hall.

An ascent ramp was made for people with mobility problems and to obtain better access through the left side of the portal.

In the year 2019-2020, when José Ángel Ruiz Rodríguez was mayor, a remodeling of the lower floor of the City Hall was carried out.

Only the left-hand office remains original, which has now been used for a small meeting room, while the staircase and some new services remain.

On the right side, a part has been used as a waiting room, then the post office, and in the background a large room is the secretary.

For many years, municipal, general, European, or referendum democratic elections were held in the town hall, but due to the aging of the population, people have been increasingly prevented from going up to the assembly hall where they vote, they have been transferred in the last elections to the building in the Plaza de San Pedro, which houses the headquarters of the LIDER area in its assembly hall.

This last council from 1986 to 2020, has gone through:

Head of state: Reign of D. Juan Carlos I 1975-2014 and Felipe VI 2014.

President of the Government, Mr. Felipe González Márquez as President 1986-1996, Mr. José María Aznar 1996-2004, Mr. José Luis Zapatero 2004-2011, Mr. Mariano Rajoy Brey 2011-2018, Mr. Pedro Sánchez-Pérez Castejón 2018 .

Mayors of Villafáfila who have ruled in the town hall since it was created in 1986:

Author:

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez

Bibliography - Text:

Elias Rodriguez Rodriguez:

Mayors of the order of Santiago in Villafáfila.

Yearbook of the Institute of Zamorano Studies Florián de Ocampo,  ISSN  0213-8212, Nº 16, 1999, pages. 283-346.

The Bells in Villafáfila.

http://historiasdevillafafila.blogspot.com.es/2017/10/apunte-sobre-las-campanas-de-villafafila.html.

The hospitals of Villafáfila in the XVI-XVIII centuries

Yearbook of the Institute of Zamorano Studies Florián de Ocampo ,  ISSN  0213-8212,  Nº 17, 2000 , pp. 431-446.

villafafila.net - http://villafafila.net/hospitales/hospital.htm

The Concord of Villafáfila. June 27, 1506. II Villafáfila in 1506. Page 78. Institute of Zamorano Studies, Florián de Campo. 2006.

History of salt mines in the Villafáfila lagoons. IV. The Rehabilitation of the Salinas and the Real Fábrica de Salitres de Villafáfila. The failure of two industrial experiences of the illustration. p. .

Data municipal democratic elections of Villafáfila:

http://www.infoelectoral.mir.es/infoelectoral/min/busquedaAvanzadaAction.html.

https://www.foro-ciudad.com/zamora/villafafila/mensaje-14565783.html.

Wikipedia: Roy

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollo_(administration)

Isidro Dominguez Calzada:

Personal information.

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez:

Mayors of Villafáfila in democracy 1979-2022. S/P

Personal information.

Photos:

Elijah Rodriguez Rodriguez.

Delas Gomez family.

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_de_Alc%C3%A1ntara_%C3%81lvarez_de_Toledo#/media/File:Pedro_de_Alc%C3%A

1ntara_%C3%81lvarez_de_Toledo_and_Salm_Salm,_XIII_Duke_of_the_Infantado_(Museo_del_Prado).jpg

https://interbenavente.es/art/8370/palomares-en-granucillo-de-vidriales

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez.

Transcription and montage:

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez.

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All text and photography has been authorized for storage, treatment, work, transcription and assembly to José Luis Domínguez Martínez, its dissemination on villafafila.net, and any other means that is authorized.